Diagnostic systems are used by technicians and professionals in virtually all industries to perform basic and advanced system testing functions. For example, in the automotive, trucking, heavy equipment and aircraft industries, diagnostic test systems provide for vehicle onboard computer fault or trouble code display, interactive diagnostics, multiscope and multimeter functions, and electronic service manuals. In the medical industry, diagnostic systems provide for monitoring body functions and diagnosis of medical conditions, as well as system diagnostics to detect anomalies in the medical equipment.
In many industries, diagnostic systems play an increasingly important role in manufacturing processes, as well as in maintenance and repair throughout the lifetime of the equipment or product. Some diagnostic systems are based on personal computer technology and feature user-friendly, menu-driven diagnostic applications. These systems assist technicians and professionals at all levels in performing system diagnostics on a real-time basis.
A typical diagnostic system includes a display on which instructions for diagnostic procedures are displayed. The system also includes a system interface that allows the operator to view real-time operational feedback and diagnostic information. Thus, the operator may view, for example, vehicle engine speed in revolutions per minute, or battery voltage during start cranking; or a patient's heartbeat rate or blood pressure. With such a system, a relatively inexperienced operator may perform advanced diagnostic procedures and diagnose complex operational or medical problems.
However, the diagnostic procedures can be based on diagnostic information that is organized or processed in one of a variety of different formats or methods. For example, in some systems a diagnostic procedure can be based on a static diagnostic fault tree. In this scenario, the diagnostic system may use intermediate results at each test step, or node of the fault tree, to determine which of one or more branches of the fault tree should be taken to the next node, or test step. In other systems, the diagnostic procedure can be based on a collection of elementary test procedures. In this scenario, the diagnostic system may use results of each in a series of the elementary test procedures to dynamically decide upon the sequence in which the elementary test procedures are to be performed.
However, in some cases, much of the diagnostic information used by two different types of systems can be common to both systems. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus for converting or translating diagnostic information from one type of system into a format that can be executed on a second type of diagnostic system.